The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-11-23
On the Adjustment of Land
Grams Made by Congress,
BY THE ATrORNEY-GENERAL.
An Adjustment to seSin at Once OF
All land Grants Under the Act
of March 3D.
An Important Opinion

An luPOEtduG OpluIOu ny Lu0 AtGOIhOS
General on the construction of sections
8, and of the act of March Sd, 1887
passed ITO provide for the adjustment
of land grants made by Congress to aid
IN the construction of railways and for
the forfeiture of unearned lands and
other purposes" is made public to-
night. The opinion is given in reply to
a question asked by the Secretary of the
Interior, and in substance Is as follows:
The first section of The act named
directs the adjustment of grants. The
second section provides for arestore-
ton of title to the United States where
the lands we're enormously certified or
patented to thu railways. The third
section is, That if in the adjustment
of said grants it shah appear that the
homestead or pre-empuon entry
of any bona fide settler has
account of any railroad grant
or the withdrawal of public lands from
the market, each settler, upon spplica-
ton, shall be reinstated in all his rights
and allowed to perfect his entry by
complying with the public land laws:
provided, that he has not located another
claim, or made an entry in lieu of one
80 enormously Cancelled; and provided,
also, that he did not voluntarily
abandon said original entry; and pro
yiGed, further, that if any Of said settlers
do not renew their application to
be reinststed within reasonable time
to be fixed by the secretary OF the In
terror, then all such unclaimed lands
shall be disposed OF under the public
land laws, with priority of right given
to the bona fide purch gsers OF said IN
claimed lands, If anY&snd If there be
no such purchaser, then to the bona
hde settlers residing thereon.
The question submitted under this
section was: What class of purchss-
ers is referred to by the expression bona
fide purchasers of such unclaimed
lands2" The rights OF the sew
srRl classes to land referred to
in the section are successive,
in the order stated therein. First in
right is the homestead or pre-emption
settler. whose entry has been wrong
fully cancelled. If he elects to assert
mis- right and has not been disqualified
by locating another claim or making
another entry in lieu of that enormously
cancelled, his right is absolute, and the
successive rights of the remaining two
classes cannot attach. II he lawfully
asserts his claim; if he fails to claim the
land or is disqualified under the act.
The second class OF persons who are
the bona fde purchasers of the land IN
claimed by him attached and have
presidents over the third class; the
bona fide purchasers here referred to
are those who, without knowledge of
wrong or error, have purchased from
The railroad company lands which have
been previously entered by pre-emp-
ton or bL 1stead settlers, whose entry
has been enormously cancelled and
which land the pre- emption or home
stead settlers did not elect to claim after
recovery by the proceedings prescribed
By the second section of the act.
The department., after the ad-
ustment of the grant, issue
= patent to the purchaser of such land
before said land had been reconveyed
by the road or the title recovered by
judicial proceedings?" In reply TO this,
the Attorney-Ge said: Until the
lands shall have been legally determined
to belong to the United States, the
right to issue patents under the fourth
section does not arise. If the patents
should issue under the fourth section
before reconveyance or judicial re-
coYery under the second, and proceed.
ings should then be instituted to cancel
the patent issued to the railroad in
case of a decision adverse to the gov
srnment, two patents would be out
standing at the same time for the same
land"
The third question was: The fifth |
section of said act provided that where |
q railroad company has sold land not |
conveyed to or for the use of such COM |
panY, and where such lands are for any |
reason exempted from the operation of |
said company, it shall be lawful for q |
bona fide purchaser thereof, from said |
company, to make payment to the |
United States for said land. and there
:upon patent shall be issued therefor to
said bona Ede purchaser. The question
submitted under this section is whether
the proviso last quoted is confined in its
application to the lands within the
primary granted limits, or whether it
spplies to land within the indemnity
limits. of which the company had made
selection, but which has not been ap-
proved. The Acknowledgement saws:
The first section of the act in the use
OF the word of grant" must have +
necessarily included both the primary
aud the indemnity limits in the adjust
ment, as 1t was doubtless intended that
the adjustment should be q full and
final one. The protection afforded and
the redress granted the settler by each
of the sections is fully as important in
the indemnity as in the primary
limits. In order that the remedy
msy be adequsts to ~edress the wrong,
the word giant" in the 5th section
must be construed to include, as it does
in the preceding sections, both the pri-
mary and the indemnity limits.
Upon receipt of the opinion, Secretary
Lamar directed the Commissioner of
the General Land OfRce to proceed at
once, and with az much dispatch as
possible, to adjust all the land grants
under the act Of March I'd.